Features Vintage Stock Cars for the street...

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! Drop by Texas Motor Speedway's "track day" on your way home from work and run the !@#$ outta that thing! This is exactly what I'm talking about man...Not over done aesthetically, just the REAL thing let loose on the highways of America. Too fucking BAD.

 

Oswego (NY) Speedway used to have a pace car that was a street-legal modified with a Pinto body on it, so it can be done. A local guy near here drives an original Tobias-framed 36 Chevy coach modified on the street, too. No fenders or anything, just a little windshield with a wiper and some lights, and it has a fairly quiet exhaust on a tame 350 I think rather than a race motor.

 

BINGO! I was wondering if someone would pick up on the Banana car. I think its all kinds of cool.

 

OMG! I am in LOVE! That is fantastic, you really nailed it.

 

Dig that interior. Trick.

 

I remember those photos... I took them...
hello modified....

 

Anyone have any brainstorms on tires? Think you could grind some of the raised white letters off of the tires to give them the right feel?

A lot of the old cars I admine showed simply Goodyear or Firestone once on each tire. I'm trying to picture what would happen if you ground the firehawk off a set of firestones.

Maybe spray on the big goodyear logo on the side of a smooth sidewall tire and let is rub off like drag slicks do?

 

I had a set of the new style Goodyear Eagle 'Cup tires that I grooved on my car for a while, until Johnny Law pulled me over and gave me a warning. They didn't really look right (too short and fat) so I have now changed over to 255-70-15 BFG's on the front on a 15 x 8 wheel, and 285-70-15 BFG's on the back with a 15 x 10 wheel. It has the right look to it now.

 

I spotted this one at the drags in Phoenix some 10 years ago;
Looked cool to me.

 

How did I miss this thread??? I've been dreaming of a roadrace round falcon like the black one at the beginning of this thread for a few months now. It might be my next build.

 

i have a vintage 47 ply 2 dr sedan the lee petty drove at concord when it was if intereted ,,,,skip

 

That Galaxie looks tuff!.. What cool stuff everyone is pulling out...

The blue Corona use to blast up the canyon past the my place .. sounds good and really runs...

Condor, make any progress toward your Banana car? Can't wait to see were you will take it.

I've been staring at the 55' trying to still figure which way I want to go. One of my 80's vintage Blue Streaks side wall just let loose so I guess their done. Its been calling to me to get her back on the street, but Ive been trying to stick to one project and finish my Victress for vintage road racing first ..but I might need to alter the project order...

 

Here's a few re-creations I've seen at the Daytona rod run in the last couple of years.
#13 A 1963 Chevy driven by Johnny Rutherford and built by Smokey Yunick. Powered by a "mystery motor"
#3 A 1961 Pontiac driven by David Pearson and built by Ray Fox
#20 A 1960 Pontiac driven by Marvin Panch and built by Smokey Yunick , That's Marvin posing with the car, the 1961 Daytona 500 winner.
#11 A 1939 Ford coupe driven by Fireball Roberts
#27 a 1959 Chevy driven by Junior Johnson and built by Ray Fox , 1960 winner of the Daytona 500
# 22 (black and gold) A 1962 Pontiac driven by Fireball Roberts and built by Smokey Yunick. 1962 Daytona 500 winner.
#22 (purple) A 1963 Ford driven by Fireball Roberts and built by Holman& Moody.

 

I've said it before more or less (probably more!) but here it is again...

This vintage, technically authentic street legal stock car concept might be the most affordable and accessible way to enjoy a high performance vehicle. Race cars are kind of like boats, they're cool when you can budget the time and money to enjoy them, but until then you're storing them, pushing/towing them around, trying to keep them from deteriorating from non-use etc.

With this gig you can COMMUTE with this car. Plus (especially with the older cars pre-'67) the mods are pretty straight forward and do-able by someone with limited resources. Everything you do to it makes the car safer. Building a 4-500 h.p. motor is pretty reasonable these days thanks to the aftermarket.

I suppose a Gasser can be done the same way, but with authentic era gearing and chassis tech it might be dicey chasing a tuner off the freeway! Not to mention most Gasser car's bodies are worth $BANK$ ('55s, Willys, Anglias etc.) A 73 Torino is practically free. You get the fun of gutting it and lightening it up...(They use to take a steering wheel, pad it, wind a skinny piece of rope around it for added grip and then tape it...) Affordable AUTHENTIC details abound on a project like this. The urge to go High tech or luxury will definitely be there, but for me, the thought of climbing through the window, settling into a lightened up stock seat and bringing that monster to life with all it's echoing, flimsy sheetmetal and open exhaust ANY TIME I WANT, ANYWHERE I WANT seems pretty !@#$in' cool.

Sure you'll get the "Dukes of Hazzard" ribbing from the sadly jealous, but just tell 'em...

"The actual PILOT for the series was very gritty and had a definite irreverent edge. The characters (including the cars) were raw and visceral with intimidation paralleling the actual deep south Hot Rod/illegal career/lustful sex machine female/used up redneck uncle reality that many live to this day. As per usual, when the pilot was successful the actual series was smoothed over and watered down, then sprinkled with the occasional exciting moment. In essence becoming a parody of itself. You know...like your occasional use, 800 horsepower, luxury equipped but not too "In your face" special interest vehicle."

Sure, you may come off a bit annoyed and impatient, but they'll deserve it...(and maybe a bit more.) Git 'em boys! YEEEEHHAAAAAW!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Did this 65 383 Polara up a few years back for the Atlantic Nationals weekend,wish I had some better pics but this is the only one,ran it for a bit with goodyear slicks front and rear,got the car on a trade didnt know what else to do with it,4 rolls of electrical tape on the steering wheel,straight exhaust in front of the right rear,hood pins with cables,we had a blast with this thing and it got a lot of attention

 

banana.jpg

 

perfect start, right here...

<title>1964 galaxie 500 for restoration</title><link title="craigslist" media="all" href="http://www.craigslist.org/styles/craigslist.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">1964 galaxie 500 for restoration - $1300 (warrenton mo)

<hr> Reply to: see below
Date: 2009-04-14, 9:27PM CDT


352 4 barrel motor and automatic trans. Interior need re -doing. Has surface rust and a few minor areas that need attention. call for details 636-597 4044

• Location: warrenton mo
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

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PostingID: 1122902933

 

39 Chev Coupe....

 

Here are a few shots of the '64 Galaxie I built a couple of years ago. I have shown some pics of the wheels I built for it, but here are a few more of the rest of the car. It will get painted the same color as the pics.
The car is licensed, insured and street driven:



The rear end is a full floating Frankland quickchange:


Rear end wrap is controlled by a pull bar with a progressive rate spring. The instant center is the same as the front eye of the leaf spring:



Engine is a 2V 351 Cleveland:


Fuel pump is a belt drive Hilborn with a return line setup on a diaphragm bypass:

The front end has weight jacks, Pro Shocks and tubular A-arms I built with screw in AFCO ball joints:

The clutch is setup with a Southwest Speed hydraulic throwout bearing and aluminum brake master cylinder:

The car has a full 8 point roll cage:


It has 15 x 10 steelies that I built in back, and 15 x 8 in the front:

 

Unreal. If you don't mind, can you take a few minutes and explain that suspension?

*Is it period NASCAR stuff or a current Modified style chassis set-up?

*What's a "pull bar" and why is it used?

*What are "weight jacks" and how, why do they work? Is that tech current?

*In all the pictures I've seen of older (pre-73) NASCAR racers, I've never seen a quick change in one or any of that trick suspension. Was it common?

- Thanks

 

The pull bar, tubular A-arms and quickchange are not period correct, but they really don't show so the vintage look is still kept. The pull bar is current dirt modified tech, but works really well at controlling the wheel hop I was experiencing without it. As the axle wraps the leaf springs, the pull bar loads the spring and weight is appied to the chassis and ultimately the tires.

 

The weight jacks have been around since the early 60s, basically the screw applies (or reduces) pressure on the coil spring (always used on both front springs and often on all 4) and changes the way the weight of the car sits on the 4 tires. The quickchange may not have been popular in Nascar, but was sure in use at local dirt tracks as early as the mid 60s. They allowed the car owner/mechanics to change the gear ratio in a matter of minutes to adjust engine rpms for the way the track was pulling.

At one point during my racing time I worked on a car that was originally a mid 60 Petty engineering chassis. That Plymouth had a left side torsion bar that could be adjusted by the driver on the track with a 1/2" drive rachet. Pretty neat setup. Gene

 

34 chevy dwarf street legal,,,wanted full size but found this ,, the picture with the hood on it is how found it, the prevous owner said it went into the barn 1992 or 1993 and sat there till l rescued the car,,

 

drive 'em, if you don't drag that thing to a good guys autorama, i'll never forgive you. go tear up some 'pro touring' cars!

what are you running for tires, 295s or 275s?

 

The rear tires are 285-70-15's and the fronts are 255-70-15's. I tried 50 and 60 series tires, but they were too short and squatty. I also have a set of 29-12.50-15 Goodyear Eagle "Cup" grooved rain tires that I mount occasionally, but they don't look near as good as the radials.

 

Thanks again. I think that '64's suspension is great, and it doesn't matter to me if it's "period correct". The reason I was asking if it was in use back then was the fact that early stock cars didn't appear to use any intricate suspension technology. This might make a car like this more accessible and less expensive to create. It seems like the early cars had basically stock, reinforced factory suspension with extra shocks, stacked wheel centers etc.

If any of you guys who truly know about and understand the construction of these early cars can post some links to good sites for research or better yet, go into detail with pictures like Drive Em is doing, that would be GREAT. I've already had some folks contact me with great info (thanks).

I'm bidding a '73 Gran Torino right now for this. I'm guessing the chassis tech by this time was pretty sophisticated. Anybody out there know the details? Also, thanks for PMing me all the modified stuff. It's cool, but I'm more interested in the vintage NASCAR style. I appreciate all the info and yeah, I'd pay to see that little Galaxie run down a few "Pro-Tour" cars myself!

 

It's funny that you mention the '73 Torino because my next car is a '73 Torino fastback that will be Nascar style, but not near as street friendly as my Galaxie. The Torinos would have had a basically stock suspension with most likey dual shocks up front, weight jacks all around and a huge front anti roll bar.

 

i thought about using the weight jacks to change the ride height on some of my old projects, but never got around to it.

if the torino's not gonna be 'as street friendly' as the galxie, i think i'll need to see that!

71-74 was probably the best era, as far as model diversity. if it was a 2 door, it was on the track! even the worst 'stock' cars make great stock cars...

 

Nice ride i would race it !

 

Know and I would not agree either the grill is just fine !!!!!!! I hope you guys had fun when you went to visit as this is an old thread, when you posted it years ago the internet was so slow here in Phuket I could walk faster . Yes that's a little exaggerated but not much when I came here we had no electric and no phones. Anyways great car !